#80: Drunk and disorderly
Hello miscreants,
This is your time. It’s your moment. No one can take it away from you. It’s yours and yours alone. I am, of course, talking about your chance to look at some cartoons. You know, like these ones.
This week, we find out what really happened to Humpty Dumpty, we see appropriately some discerning birds in action, and we see a negotiation take a nasty turn.
Picking up the pace,
Chris
Like what you see? Follow me on Instagram (@chrisshorten), or talk a friend into following me on Instagram. Or, buy some prints from my website.
Caption: One minute before Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
We’ve been looking at Humpty Dumpty all wrong.
Because, everyone talks about the great fall, but no one talks about what happened before it. And maybe, just maybe, that time before the fall, Humpty Dumpty was out drinking with all the kings horses and all the kings men. And, well, then one thing led to another.
No wonder the horses and men were of no help.
A little artist’s note: So I first drew this cartoon all the way back in September of 2023. And it’s been rejected by everyone ever since. But, well, I just kind of like it.
However, the version you see above is not the version I had shopped around. Part of that is because I completely redrew every line to make it feel like my current style. But perhaps the most important part was that I revised the caption to remove the reference to being on/off the wagon. Because, well, alcohol addiction is a pretty serious thing and the joke just wasn’t feeling right.
The thing is, though, I also think the new version is better.
But for completeness, below is the original.
So, you know, same same, but very different.
Caption: “Relax, he’s been cancelled.”
Birds know everything.
But particularly, they know exactly where to go when they, you know, need to go. And they know that some statues are off limits, while others, well, others are open for business. Like, you know, the statues of people who perhaps weren’t as nice as we thought they were.
Keep watching the skies.
A little artist’s note: Gosh, cancellations. That’s a big topic for this pithy email.
But some historical figures, for one reason or another, probably don’t need statues. Particularly certain colonists who may have not been all that friendly (if it’s at all possible to associate friendliness with colonisation).
Visually, this one is pretty simple. Like all of my cartoons, it started out with a background was there until it wasn’t, when I realised that maybe it was an unneeded extra. It does, however, have a splash of shadow, which avoids it being completely in a white void. So, uh, win?
Caption: “Squeeze him harder.”
This first appeared in issue #361 of Weekly Humorist.
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Sometimes, well sometimes you know there is something more in there.
Is it vital information? Is it the key to survival? Or is it that last dollop of toothpaste, stubbornly stuck in the tube?
All it takes is one, last, squeeze… or multiple squeezes.
A little artist’s note: I am so happy to see this cartoon out in the world and appearing in Weekly Humorist. It’s a great magazie, and this cartoon is one of my favourites.
Visually, there is a lot to unpack here. You’ve got the mob interrogator, you’ve got the guy ready to do the damage, and you’ve got the poor and heavily squeezed toothpaste, just holding on … or holding out. But, aside from the life-sized toothpaste, perhaps the biggest thing to note here is the lamp and shading. My style has evolved a bit since I drew and sold this one, so I probably wouldn’t do the shading exactly like this now, but I’m still happy with how it has come out. Because, from memory, this took forever to make at the time.
Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!
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